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Living Standards Measurement Study

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Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA)

The World Bank

The Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) is a unique system of longitudinal surveys designed to improve the understanding of household and individual welfare, livelihoods and smallholder agriculture in Africa.

LSMS-ISA: 15 years of impact in development

How has the LSMS-ISA informed policymaking? Hear from its six data producers and users

Recognizing that existing agricultural data in the region suffers from inconsistent investment, institutional and sectoral isolation, and methodological weakness, the LSMS-ISA project collaborates with the national statistics offices of its eight partner countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to design and implement systems of multi-topic, nationally representative panel household surveys with a strong focus on agriculture. The primary objective of the project is to foster innovation and efficiency in statistical research on the links between agriculture and poverty reduction in the region.

In each partner country, the LSMS-ISA supports multiple rounds of a nationally representative panel survey with a multi-topic approach designed to improve the understanding of the links between agriculture, socioeconomic status, and non-farm income activities. The frequency of data collection is determined on a country-by-country basis, depending on data demand and the availability of complementary funding.

Open Data

The LSMS team works with national statistics offices to design and implement household surveys with a strong focus on agriculture. Several panel datasets are now available for free download; visit the country tabs below.

The LSMS-ISA project is supporting the design and implementation of a multi-topic household panel survey, with the purpose of building capacity for the implementation of household surveys. The ultimate objective of the work is to improve the quality, timeliness, and relevance of household-level agricultural statistics in Burkina Faso, with an emphasis on sustainability, capacity building, and improving data collection methods.

The GHS-Panel is implemented by the Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The LSMS team is responsible for the management and technical design of the project, as well as for the provision of technical assistance and the support of analytical work resulting from the collected data.

Sampling and Survey Design

Sampling and survey design work is currently under discussion.

Questionnaire Design

The multi-topic questionnaires are under discussion; they will be posted here upon finalization.

Field Work Implementation

Wave 1, from September 2011 to March 2012, surveyed a subset of Agricultural Sample Survey (AgSS) households as well as new non-farm households, with a computer-assisted interview application on ultra-mobile personal computers. As with the regular AgSS, the data collection is over a period of about 5-9 months depending on the area of the country and the seasons (from post-planting in the long rainy season to the start of the short rainy season). The AgSS is carried out through multiple visits to the households by the resident enumerators. The final visit for the ERSS was done after the crops were harvested in order to get production data.

Fieldwork for Wave 2 began in September 2013 and finished in April 2014.

Fieldwork for Wave 3 began in September 2015 and finished in April 2016.

Fieldwork for Wave 4 began in September 2018 and finished in August 2019.

Data Documentation and Dissemination

The data from the 2014 EMC are available for download. The Burkina Faso integrated household survey data are disseminated via the LSMS and INSD websites

Recent release